Beneath the comedy lies a serious message that Athens must return to its traditional values expressed in Aeschylus' plays

Athens was losing the Peloponnesian War against Sparta, fleetwas defeated at Sicilian Exp. or Arginusae (413-404 BC)

The exalted role of playwrights

As wise observers of human beings and interpreters of their ideas and actions, playwrights hold an exalted position in ancient Greece

The fact that D was willing to enter the infernal regions to bring back a playwright emphasise the importance of playwrights to the health of the state

Beware of new voices in education

new voices in education- such as those of the Sophists- pose a danger to the state

The Sophists were traveling teachers who provided an education for a fee

They maintained that the guiding principles o a society, such as justice and truth, were relative concepts- that is, these principles changed according to he needs of men in a particular time and place

what was right in Athens was not necessarily right in another society. One man's virtue is another man's vice

A associates E with the Sophist reputation forcorrupting morals when he says that E is guilty of "foisting thy tales of incest on the stage".

Sophists did not pray to the traditional gods, they prayed to "Ether, Tongue and Nostril"

Foll of deception

D disguises himself as Heracles, wearing a lion skin and carrying a club to appear formidable to those he meets in Hades.

However his plan backfired when the enemies of H think that D is in fact H and threaten him. Spooked by their threats he makes X wear the H disguise

Climax

Occurs when D picks A over E because of the former's emphasis in his plays on traditional values and writing standards